The National Alliance on Mental Illness On Campus provides mental health support, education and advocacy to students. The organization, which has different chapters across Wake County and on other campuses, meets biweekly and focuses on different mental illnesses each meeting in hopes of raising awareness and educating the student population. 

Ambrose McNally, a fourth-year studying psychology and president of the organization’s chapter, said the organization tries to host fun and creative events while also prioritizing educating students and members.

“We do de-stress events during finals where people can engage in different crafts and activities, but also do class presentations on how people can make their own self-care plan or support somebody having suicidal thoughts,” McNally said. “We do meetings every two weeks, and we’re going to do a QRP — question, persuade, refer — soon on March 9 with our members.”

McNally said the group’s impact has been very widespread and already made a large impact on campus.

“I really feel like we’ve made an impact on campus and that’s influential for me and what kind of work I want to do in the future,” McNally said. “Being able to meet with people that are like-minded, spread and share sources, and connect has been really influential.”

McNally also said, given the mental health crises and student deaths on campus this year, it’s important the university and on-campus organizations do as much as possible to make students aware of the difficulties they’re facing and how to help others.

“I think that mental health education needs to be engaging in order for it to be effective,” McNally said. “Students need to become educated on the different resources we have on campus so they can have it in their minds. A lot of students aren’t getting their basic needs met, and [the university] offers some assistance for that, but sometimes not enough.”

McNally and other members of the chapter have been working hard recently to help the university provide more educational opportunities to students directly.

“We’re always working on our presentations to make it more engaging for students so we’re not just talking at them,” McNally said. “It’s a hard balance, but we’re really working and open to feedback about that.” 

Students can get involved with The National Alliance on Mental Illness by attending one of their biweekly meetings on Thursday evenings and stay up-to-date by following the group’s Instagram, @nami.ncsu.

William Martin, a fourth-year studying computer engineering, said he thinks the University will need to do more to help struggling students.

“I think that the university needs more resources if the situation is the same as two years ago,” Martin said. “My experience [at the Counseling Center] was a long waitlist to talk to anyone, which was discouraging. I think that there have to be better solutions than mental health days in the middle of the week for students, as this often leads to lecture-less days but with more work.”